Cllr questions allocation to Trim parade

A heated exchange between Cllr Vincent McHugh and Cllr Ray Butler characterised the allocation of funding under the Sports, Society and Club Grant Scheme at last week's meeting of Trim Town Council. Funding for this year's scheme is €5,500, down from €7,000 in 2009, and town clerk Brian Murphy recommended that €5,100 be allocated to the 16 groups which applied, leaving €400 over for late applications. The largest allocation was €2,500 for the Trim St Patrick's Day Parade committee to run its Celtic Festival, and the remaining groups were to receive grants ranging from €100 to €300. Cllr Vincent McHugh commented that the St Patrick's Day parade was getting €2,500 while the disability groups like Trim Special Olympics and Trim Arch Club, which were "every bit as important", were only being allocated €250 and €200. He acknowledged that a lot of work was put into the St Patrick's Day Parade but said the other groups also had great people who volunteered and put a lot of time and effort in. Cllr Ray Butler, who is chairperson of the St Patrick's Day Parade committee, replied that "Trim prided itself on being one of the best parades in the country" and suggested to Cllr McHugh to "try and run a parade on €2,500". Added Cllr Butler: "Where do we go with a parade that has gone from €4,000 in 2008, to €3,000 last year to €2,500 this year. Next year, give us €500. The likes of Navan who weren't going to have a parade were given €5,000 and Kells got €5,000. No disrespect to their parades, but people come from far and wide for Trim's parade and there were 12,000 people in the town of Trim last year." Cllr McHugh said he did not want to get into a row but questioned if the parade committee was even a sport or club. Town manager Kevin Stewart explained that the parade used to be a separate heading in the budget but the decision was made a year ago to have a single allocation system for people looking for funds. Mr Murphy added that culture was also part of it, though the heading did not say it. Cllr Gerry Reilly said there were a lot of other organisations in Trim councillors would like to give to, but they did not have a pot of money with €20,000 to give out, He added that, in Trim, the parade was not just a day but a week-long festival. Cllr McHugh said he had nothing against this but "they weren't getting the colour of that a few years ago" and had got sponsorship. Mr Murphy said, in 2007, €1,200 was granted but the case was made for a festival in 2008 and the allocation went up to €4,000. Cllr Ronan McKenna said the Arch Club and Special Olympics needed as much funding and support as they could give, and suggested that they allocated them another €100 each from the €400 left over and give €200 to Trim Celtic FC. Mr Murphy said councillors made him aware that certain groups hadn't got their application in on time last year, and he had set aside a balance. He added that he had written to the 20 groups which applied last year, including Trim Celtic. It was agreed to allocate a further €100 to Trim Special Olympics and €100 to Trim Arch Club and leave €200 aside for late applciations. Cllr Butler said he felt it was important that the message went out that all members are supportive of the St Patrick's Day Parade and Festival. He said he knew where Cllr McHugh was coming from, and that there are a lot of worthy societies locally. "If we had a pot of gold, I would love to give out more," he said. Cllr McHugh added that he fully supported the festival.